Mitsuru Ushijima

Mitsuru Ushijima (31 July 1887-22 June 1945) was a Lieutenant-General of the Imperial Japanese Army who led the Japanese 32nd Army on Okinawa during World War II.

Biography
Mitsuru Ushijima was born on 31 July 1887 in Kagoshima, Japan, and he graduated from the Army Staff College in 1916. Ushijima was a veteran of the Siberian Intervention during the Russian Civil War, and at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War he was promoted to Major-General and sent to command the Japanese 11th Infantry Division in China. From 1942 to 1944 he was commandant of the Japanese Military Academy, but he was later sent to serve on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In 1945, he led the Japanese 32nd Army in resisting the United States invasion of Okinawa during World War II, and despite a determined defense, the Japanese were defeated. Ushijima committed seppuku rather than accept defeat.